Case Mod - In Progress Project: Paradigm - Xbox 360 Case Mod 100% Complete! Final Pics!

Well, it's christmas, everything is closed, so i can't buy paint or plexi for Endorphin, and my family is in christmas mode (i don't celebrate christmas so i need to keep myself busy). So, what do i do, i mod something ELSE!! Woohoo!!

Here are the plans so far for this specific 360:

• Case Window
• Replace the fans with nicer ones
• Some modding to the fan duct, maybe chrome it, or import a new one
• LEDs in the bottom and the top
• LEDs inside the place where the front USB ports are. These LEDs will only be visible if something is plugged into the ports
• Internalize the HDD
• Mod another HDD into the current HDD enclosure and use that as a device that i can store stuff on from my PC and then view on the 360
• LEDs in the optical drive
• Optical drive window
• HDD activity LED somewhere on the 360... still need to decide
• Ethernet activity LED
• Change the LEDs on the Ring Of Light (ROL) to blue
• Change the LEDs in the controller to blue
• Change the LED in the play & charge kit to blue
• Maybe an LED fader kit for the LEDs in the case for when the 360 is off
• Window in the HDD enclosure
• LEDs in the HDD enclosure
• Close up the memory card slots and IR view on the front. I don't want that stuff there

So, this afternoon i grabbed one of my 360s and pulled it apart. Here's the top cover:





Inside:





All masked up and ready for some love. Say hello to my little friend!





Almost done cutting:





Alrighty, panel out:







Now it's all down to lots and lots of sanding...

Sanding done:





A quick test fit:





Excuse the two random wires and masking tape in the 360. Those are wires i've soldered onto the underside of the board for 5V power source.

What i needed now was the window. This is the plexi i'll be using for the window.





Don't worry, it's transparent plexi, it just has a blue protective film over it. I didn't bother cutting that plexi to size just yet because i first want to cut a nice window border like i did here with Endorphin's side panel:





I'll probably only get to do that next week though when everything opens

Anyway, 360 back together:







And back on it's place





I have a few goodies on their way to me from china. I ordered them just before i went on holiday, so they should be here any day now. I ordered some replacement rear fans, an LED lighting setup... err... can't remember what else :|

 

3? 3 why please explain

 

Why not have 3?

 

so, doing some l.e.d. changing mods? fan mods? woo, cant wait to see more

 

Being a reader of your Endorphin log I know you have skills, so this should get interesting! Keep it up! *subscribed*

 

thanks guys!

@ 500MPH, read my first post please

Update time!

I started with the HDD enclosure today. So, we all know what the HDD looks like in it's default form:





After opening it up, i pulled the top piece apart from everything else, and then I masked it up:





Almost done cutting:





Done sanding. Just have to make the edges smoother:





Now, the 360 HDD enclosure has a nice chrome side:





That fits like this:





But that little bridge in the middle is in the way, so it needed to go:





All done, no plexi yet though:





And then, finished!! All pimped out with a nice 1.5mm clear plexi window






I just need to get rid of that "Warranty" sticker on the HDD...

I'm gonna be lighting the inside of that enclosure with a bunch of blue LEDs, which i'll start working on now.

That's it, hope you guys like it!

Regards
Ettienne

 

I totally don't have the nads right now to crack open my expensive 360, though I done lots of gen 1 xbox cases. It's looking great!

 

Some nice modding so far, looking forward too seeing what else you do with it, especially after what you have done on previous projects.

 

I keep telling myself when the warranty expires on my 360 I'm going to take it apart and pimp it out, every time I start thinking and planning they extend the damn warranty! Anywho good luck man, sounds like its going to be pretty damn cool. I wish I had extra 360's laying around.

 

Thanks a lot guys!

Update.

I wasn't happy with the HDD window. So i decided to make a flush mount window. This way, instead of having the hole in the cover with a piece of plexi INSIDE, you have a piece of plexi SLIGHTLY larger than the hole, which is then FORCED into the hole and the result is a window that's FLUSH with the cover. It looks a million times better:







Then it was time to get some LED goodness going. So, i took out the HDDs cables:





I needed these two:





Yellow is 5V, black is ground. Wires stripped:





Then after testing with a multimeter, i quickly soldered on an LED just to make sure:





Success. So, after removing that LED, i made these:





I also soldered on a resistor:





Glued the LEDs in place:





Once that was done, all i had to do was put it all together. All done:





Lights off:







Not too bad if i must say so myself!

Now i need to change the LEDs on the ROL (Ring of light) ASAP. The green doesn't exactly go with the blue in the HDD.

Let me know what you guys think.

Regards
Ett

 

Damn that looks good, it would be even better if you manage to get the stickers off the HDD, and like you say, swap the ROL to blue.

 

Good job with the HDD-window. On the photos taken in dark the edge of the acryl lits up nicely. I don't think you'd get that effect using the normal window-light-method!

 

great work so far keep it up

 

looking good

what size hdd is that?

 

Wow. Im going to keep a tab on this one. Microsoft should hire people like you and sell 'pre-modded' 360's.

 

its probably a 10 or a 20, since its not an elite. and i wouldnt mod a 120gb one of those, considering the price

 

Sweet! Nice work. Keep it up!

 

Looking good man, my only question is whats the point of 3 360's? Lot's of room for mistakes on mods?

 

Thanks for the comments guys!

I have a total of 4 360's. One is one i bought in the shop. The other three are 360's that were dead, that i repaired (well, 2 of them. I still need to do the last one)

Now THAT would be cool

Update!!

Okay, this isn't much of an update, but i've got one or two things to share

A nice little package arrived from Honk Kong:





Included in this package were the following:

A set of Blue Talismoon rear fans:









Compared to the stock fans:





A new fan duct:





Compared to the stock fan duct:






Some LEDs:









(yes, i know, i could have made those myself. But i'm lazy, and they were cheap )

And lastly, the replacement cover for my DVD drive:





The bummer about the DVD drive cover is that it requires me to tear open my original cover for the little balancing goodie:







Which is then held in place with this:





I dunno if i'm gonna keep that piece though. I might make my own one...

Anyway, stock fan:





New fan:







Fan duct in place, and testing:





I then also wired up the new LEDs. All power from the bottom of the motherboard:





I ALSO changed the LEDs on the ROL, from green to blue:







I then threw it all together just for a quick test to see how it looks:









Tomorrow i'm gonna go get some paint. Can't wait to finish this baby

 

Its so blue!
It looks great, but I think there is still something missing.
Also, I have looked into the talismoon fans as well. are they quieter than the stock fans?